Healing
by EwanMcGregorIsMyHomeboy12
Summary: In one of their quiet meometns alone, Satine notices new scars on her Jedi's body. Mixed with feelings of loss, bitterness, and guilt are feelings of comfort and the soothing touch that tangible love can provide.


(A/N) Contains spoilers form the Kadavo Arc! Set either in between season 4 and 5, or early season five. Doesn't matter, it reads the same way. I enjoy the pairing, and the hurt/comfort aspect of what their bond could have been (always crying). Please R and R, let me know what you think!

He looked more relaxed than she had seen him in a long time. In sleep, his face was untensed, a small, half-smile, reminiscent of the one that he used when awake was etched into his features. She watched him take even breaths, half of his face obscured by the pillows he was lying face down in. She understood why he was so tired, rarely did he get to sleep for more than a couple of collective hours, she knew that out in the battlefields of the grand Republic, he was seen as more of a commodity than a living being. Last night's activities probably hadn't helped with the sleeplessness problem either. She smiled to herself at the thought of both of them, breathing heavily, physically exhausted, redressing and to sleep minutes later.

His upper body was bare, however, and as she shifted in her bed, the sheet pulled down to expose more of the skin of his back. She couldn't contain the small gasp; she knew Obi-Wan had scars, his chest and abdomen were indications of his many years of fighting in close combat, but she had not expected the degree they were present on his back. Cutting long, jagged stripes through his skin, were thick white scars. She reached out, gently tracing one with her fingers.

He started awake. "Satine?" His voice was laced with sleep suggestion and mild confusion. "What is it?"

"I'm sorry, dear, I didn't mean to wake you." And she hadn't, but she moved to trace another of them, with her thumb. The night before, he had seem almost entranced as she kissed and traced the scars on his torso, but now his muscles tensed uncomfortably under her fingers. "These scars Obi-Wan," she spoke softly, moving over them gently. "What happened?"

He was silent for a long moment, and she stilled her hand on the small of his back, knowing he would answer when the time came. Clearly, they were bothering him, they were bringing up some painful memory. She wanted to help him, help him eliminate that pain, erase whatever memories he had that had cut into more than just his skin.

"Zygerria and Kadavo." He said at last, his tone guarded. "Anakin, Ashoka, and I were attempting to free a Togrutan colony that were being sold into slavery. I was captured while trying to free one of them," He did not offer an explanation then, of the scars themselves, but she got the image. Her heart hurt at the thought of slavery, of what those poor beings had been forced to endure. And she felt within her, a low anger. She traced another of the marks gently with her fingers, he had been taken by slavers, they were lash marks from a whip. Anger welled inside of her, not a common feeling for her, not one that as a pacifist she let take over her thoughts very easily. But then, the depth of feeling she felt for Obi-Wan was not a common feeling for her, having him in her bed, feeling his skin, reveling in his body was not a common occurrence for her either.

"They tried to sell me at a slave auction because Jedi are apparently rare commodities, but Anakin intervened. I ended up on Kadavo in a work camp instead." She had not expected the rest of the story, but she could feel there was even more he was going to say. She continued her path, tracing a new asymmetrical scar across his back each time she reached the end of the one before it. "I was tortured, at the camp, physically obviously, but every time I would try and help one of them; give them bread, water, some kind of comfort, they would torment them. I was as good as helpless, the scars are proof of that."

"You freed all of those people, Obi-Wan."

"No." He said quietly finally relaxing his muscles, untensing under her gentle, but urgent touch. "Anakin and the Order saved them, along with myself and my Clone Commander Rex. The most I could do for them was take a beating or try and give them bread. It usually didn't end to well."

She didn't have words to comfort him, and she knew that really, there was no comforting to be done. He would forever hold part of that blame within his heart, regardless of the fact that it had not been his fault. She could not offer him words, nothing soft and gentle, like he always seemed to have for her. She was a Duchess, and a speaker in her own equivocal way to him, but his ability to comfort and draw inner peace was not something she could mirror. Instead, she continued to trace his scars until she was sure she had covered all of them. Then her hands, in an easing fashion, started to knead gently at the muscles along his back, massaging gentle paths, trying to alleviate the guilt and horror he must have been feeling.

She watched as he closed his eyes, relaxing into the pillows, the tension that had come back to his face after he woken up disappearing as her hands moved over his skin. She paid careful attention to the area cut by the whips, trying, in her own way, to help eliminate the damage they had caused. "You're a good person, Obi-Wan, you did more for those people than anyone could have." He didn't argue with her, but he did let out a held-in breath. She suspicioned he might disagree with her, but didn't have it left in him to argue about it.

Minutes later, and she reached the top of his Jedi trousers, and ran her hands back over the expanse of his back all the way up to his shoulders. "Obi-Wan." She spoke softly, and he twisted around in the bed to be eye to eye with her. Her hand moved form his shoulders to his jawline, and she pulled him into a slow and gentle kiss. It didn't burn with the passion she had kissed him with the night before, not years of waiting to kiss and being denied the ability. Instead it glowed with gentle love, reminiscent of the comfort she was able to offer him. He held her close, fingers combing through her blonde hair as she moved to hook her legs over his waist.

It gave them a better angle, being face to face fully, and he pulled her tight, but her tongue was the one to first ask to enter his mouth. He allowed it, and she explored him, the edges of his beard tickling her face. Instinctively, she pressed her hips into his, not meaning, at first, to be so forward, being rewarded when he took hold her hips and held them together. She broke their long kiss, panting slightly above him, and ran her hands down his chest, careful to, on her way down, trace each scar and old cut, emphasizing each one with the tips of her fingers.

"Didn't have enough fun last night, Duchess?" He was smiling up at her, and winked at her to indicate he was teasing. She slid her hand down past his abdomen and brushed against the front of his pants where he was already half-hard against her.

"Id don't think I'm the only one, Master Jedi, who needs a bit more fun." He groaned at her touch, and she was glad he was able to be free around her. His control was legendary, but legends could be hard to maintain. He needed this freedom their connection could offer him, freedom she could offer him, however fleeting their days together always were.

You're too right. He tugged at her shirt, pulling it over her head as she lifted her arms for him. She hadn't bothered putting on a bra before they had gone back to bed, but he clearly hadn't known that, his eyes darkening as her skin was exposed to him. He moved an arm to wrap around her back, and, supporting her the whole while, flipped them gently to where he was hovering over her on the bed. He kissed the side of her face, and traced her earlobe with his tongue before even brushing against her breast. She enjoyed this aspect of making love with him, he took his time, savoring every minute, and even though her body was starting to ache for him, it would be more than worth the wait. As he finally got to her breasts, stopping to suck at a sensitive spot on her collarbone, she rubbed her hands over his back again, feeling the lines mar the smooth skin there. They made her angry, they made her want revenge on the slavers, but the feel of his lips and his tongue on her body soothed that anger, started to erase any sour thoughts she had so that she was focused solely on the feel of him.

She reached between them, interrupting his ministrations, to undo his pants and roll them down off of his hips, followed by the dark blue shorts he was wearing under them. He hovered, completely naked above her, and she smiled at him, knowing that she was the only one to see him this way. After a brief kiss, almost short enough to be chaste, he moved back her breasts. He tongue slid across one of her nipples, already hardened from his fingers, and she moaned. Spurred by the noise, he repeated the motion to the other one, getting the reaction he desired. He kissed his way down her body then, dropping soft kissed along her sides and above her hip bones until she was almost squirming underneath him. Her thin undergarment came off of her legs easily, and both waited, breathing heavy, in quiet anticipation of their coupling. She wrapped her arms around his back, feeling again the scars whose origins she now knew, before sliding the hand around, over the sharp cut of his hip bone, to take him in her hand. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder, groaning freely into her smooth skin as she worked over him.

Each of his sounds was doing something to her, making her body want his even more than she thought possible. Every time they made love, eh insisted on touching her, bringing her almost to climax before their bodies came together as one. She liked, on occasions like this, to return those efforts. She moved slowly, his skin heated and throbbing slightly as his pulse quickened. "Let me make love to you." He panted out between breaths, and she smiled, claiming his lips in another kiss, stroking him a couple of more times before she guided him to slide into her body.

It was these two moments, the one where he first entered her waiting body, and moments later, when all of him was encased inside of her, that made her feel so complete. They shared a moan at the contact, and he stayed buried within her for several moments, taking the time to savor how she felt around him. Normally, he would kiss her and start the slow motion of his hips, but this time was different.

He pulled his head back, looking her deeply in the eyes. "I love you, Satine." She smiled at him, reciprocating it without saying the words. He kept his eyes on hers, and she felt his hips start to move. They were slow moving and steady. He tried to hold her gaze, but eventually his eyes closed, and his head went to her neck, slightly lost in the pleasure and friction created between them.

She felt the same, but her mind was distracted, hoping that in their physical bond he could release the pent up frustrations, anger, he guilt he harbored about Kadavo. But the feel of his body, gently filling hers again and again, distracted her attentions elsewhere and she moaned as he thrust hard and brushed directly against the bundle of nerves she was pushing against him.

He was saying things, quiet, gentle things reminiscent of their other times together into her skin, but she couldn't make them out. She could feel the love and desire behind them, which coupled with his insistent, rhythmic motions were spiraling her into oblivion. The knot in her lower abdomen was twisting, trying hard to push her further into him, to move faster, to lose herself in him.

She wrapped her arms around his back, hooking a leg over his hip so his thrusts moved deeper inside of her, satisfying her own needs. They moaned together, and she kept her grip of him tight, wanted to feel him. He sucked hard at a spot on her throat, his whispers turning into ceaseless tumbles of noises form deep within his chest. He moved faster, his hips striking a deep rhythm into him, his upper body slick against her. One more thrust and she clenched around him, his name a cry from her lips. He kept moving, his hips insistent, and she could feel his muscles taut against her fingers, his shoulders almost rigid.

She pressed her heel into his back, feeling a second, smaller explosion of pleasure coarse through her body, this time the clenching of the muscles inside of her pulling him over the edge, his lips leaving a kiss on her cheek as he stilled slowed and still inside of her, her name leaving his mouth in a forced rush.

He didn't move away from her as quickly as usual, staying inside of her body until both of their breathing had almost returned to normal before he moved to lay beside her on the bed. She lay against him, keeping the warmth of his body close she willed the comfort she wanted to offer him to reach him.

For moments, they existed in silence, recovering their breath, recovering themselves from the throes of passion they had been absorbed in. His arm came around her, holding her body to his, she kissed his chest, and snaked an arm around him, feelings the tips of the scars underneath her fingertips.

"Thank you, love." And she smiled, knowing that she had been able to reach him after all, his guilt quieted, his mind eased. She moved her hand down to entwine it with his waiting fingers, reveling in their fleeting time where they could live to love the other.


End file.
